East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Rejection slips

Got a rejection in the mail this morning.
Short pitch for a novelette – general plot and a 500 words scene.
It was a long shot.Two hours at the keyboard, one night, a long time ago.
It happens.
Getting rejection slips is part of the game of writing and submitting to publishers.
Sometimes our stories are just not good enough.
No conspiracies, no misunderstandings of our art, no bullshit.
The submitted material was not good enough.
A writer trying to make this their work should learn to take stock, accept the rejection and move on.
And start thinking at possible ways to recycle the material.

Talking of which… Of course my Patreon supporters might get a chance at reading both outline and sample scene, for their delectation.
I suffered for my art, now it’s their turn.

2 thoughts on “Rejection slips”

“Thank you for submitting your story to our publication. We are, however, sorry to inform you that your story does not meet our requirements at this time. We wish you good luck with submitting your story elsewhere.”

In this case the text was even more cold and clinical.
But I guess they got so many submissions, they had to be cold and clinical.
They did not even contemplate the option of submitting elsewhere, it was so focused and specific a call.
But I will recycle plot and characters sooner or later.